Do you guys have any plans for activities you'd like to do with Max? Agility, dock diving, tracking, nose work, weight pull, rally, etc? Or are you just looking for a companion for your family? Do you guys have other pets?

to the forum. In the summer time the forum seems to slow down a bit, so you might not see much activity...but give it a month or two and it'll pick up

Backwards smackwards...before you're 60 you'll have two retirements-that's awesome! Well, from one vet to another (Army brat who served 4 yrs in the AF) thank you for your service.

When my husband and I first started talking about getting a dog I mentioned APBTs and he said-no, absolutely not-not if you want to have kids in the next ten years. We currently own two (and two cats). We've also fostered and really can't see our lives without some sort of PB companion. I have found that owning a PB type dog is more difficult than I expected...but it has caused me to be a more responsible owner and because of that-no matter what kind of dog (animal) I own I will now have a certain set of standards. If you're not familiar, you should look up dog aggression and animal aggression (commonly refered to as DA/AA). Lots of PBs have one or both and they shouldn't be faulted for it. If you're a fan of the dog park, you may want to reconsider after reading this thread (really the first post has the meat of the information): viewtopic.php?f=2&t=50274" And if you ever decide to get another dog/animal you'll want to look into crate and rotate. Typically those are the very basic things that are advocated for on this forum to new members. If you're already familiar with them-you're one step ahead.

Something I always like to mention/talk about (and you'll see a lot of it around here) is your method of training. If it involves alpha/dominance styles/terminology, you're going to want to up your knowledge. You've said it's been a long time since you've had a dog, and back then those training methods were very common/popular. You might be surprised to know they're now not only frowned upon by the general (PB) community but also the main guy who promoted all of that has taken it all back, said it was a mistake, and advises against it.

Here are a couple of good websites to poke around on when you have more time. They all have really good information on them (and you'll find, they're not the only ones-there's a ton of info out there for you).